The Iliad, Homer [big screen ebook reader .txt] 📗

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until he lost his life, for Achilles struck him in the middle of the
back as he was darting past him: he struck him just at the golden
fastenings of his belt and where the two pieces of the double
breastplate overlapped. The point of the spear pierced him through and
came out by the navel, whereon he fell groaning on to his knees and a
cloud of darkness overshadowed him as he sank holding his entrails in
his hands.

When Hector saw his brother Polydorus with his entrails in his hands
and sinking down upon the ground, a mist came over his eyes, and he
could not bear to keep longer at a distance; he therefore poised his
spear and darted towards Achilles like a flame of fire. When Achilles
saw him he bounded forward and vaunted saying, "This is he that has
wounded my heart most deeply and has slain my beloved comrade. Not for
long shall we two quail before one another on the highways of war."

He looked fiercely on Hector and said, "Draw near, that you may meet
your doom the sooner." Hector feared him not and answered, "Son of
Peleus, think not that your words can scare me as though I were a
child; I too if I will can brag and talk unseemly; I know that you are
a mighty warrior, mightier by far than I, nevertheless the issue lies
in the lap of heaven whether I, worse man though I be, may not slay you
with my spear, for this too has been found keen ere now."

He hurled his spear as he spoke, but Minerva breathed upon it, and
though she breathed but very lightly she turned it back from going
towards Achilles, so that it returned to Hector and lay at his feet in
front of him. Achilles then sprang furiously on him with a loud cry,
bent on killing him, but Apollo caught him up easily as a god can, and
hid him in a thick darkness. Thrice did Achilles spring towards him
spear in hand, and thrice did he waste his blow upon the air. When he
rushed forward for the fourth time as though he were a god, he shouted
aloud saying, "Hound, this time too you have escaped death--but of a
truth it came exceedingly near you. Phoebus Apollo, to whom it seems
you pray before you go into battle, has again saved you; but if I too
have any friend among the gods I will surely make an end of you when I
come across you at some other time. Now, however, I will pursue and
overtake other Trojans."

On this he struck Dryops with his spear, about the middle of his neck,
and he fell headlong at his feet. There he let him lie and stayed
Demouchus son of Philetor, a man both brave and of great stature, by
hitting him on the knee with a spear; then he smote him with his sword
and killed him. After this he sprang on Laogonus and Dardanus, sons of
Bias, and threw them from their chariot, the one with a blow from a
thrown spear, while the other he cut down in hand-to-hand fight. There
was also Tros the son of Alastor--he came up to Achilles and clasped
his knees in the hope that he would spare him and not kill him but let
him go, because they were both of the same age. Fool, he might have
known that he should not prevail with him, for the man was in no mood
for pity or forbearance but was in grim earnest. Therefore when Tros
laid hold of his knees and sought a hearing for his prayers, Achilles
drove his sword into his liver, and the liver came rolling out, while
his bosom was all covered with the black blood that welled from the
wound. Thus did death close his eyes as he lay lifeless.

Achilles then went up to Mulius and struck him on the ear with a spear,
and the bronze spear-head came right out at the other ear. He also
struck Echeclus son of Agenor on the head with his sword, which became
warm with the blood, while death and stern fate closed the eyes of
Echeclus. Next in order the bronze point of his spear wounded Deucalion
in the fore-arm where the sinews of the elbow are united, whereon he
waited Achilles' onset with his arm hanging down and death staring him
in the face. Achilles cut his head off with a blow from his sword and
flung it helmet and all away from him, and the marrow came oozing out
of his backbone as he lay. He then went in pursuit of Rhigmus, noble
son of Peires, who had come from fertile Thrace, and struck him through
the middle with a spear which fixed itself in his belly, so that he
fell headlong from his chariot. He also speared Areithous squire to
Rhigmus in the back as he was turning his horses in flight, and thrust
him from his chariot, while the horses were struck with panic.

As a fire raging in some mountain glen after long drought--and the
dense forest is in a blaze, while the wind carries great tongues of
fire in every direction--even so furiously did Achilles rage, wielding
his spear as though he were a god, and giving chase to those whom he
would slay, till the dark earth ran with blood. Or as one who yokes
broad-browed oxen that they may tread barley in a threshing-floor--and
it is soon bruised small under the feet of the lowing cattle--even so
did the horses of Achilles trample on the shields and bodies of the
slain. The axle underneath and the railing that ran round the car were
bespattered with clots of blood thrown up by the horses' hoofs, and
from the tyres of the wheels; but the son of Peleus pressed on to win
still further glory, and his hands were bedrabbled with gore.


BOOK XXI

The fight between Achilles and the river Scamander--The gods
fight among themselves--Achilles drives the Trojans within
their gates.

NOW when they came to the ford of the full-flowing river Xanthus,
begotten of immortal Jove, Achilles cut their forces in two: one half
he chased over the plain towards the city by the same way that the
Achaeans had taken when flying panic-stricken on the preceding day with
Hector in full triumph; this way did they fly pell-mell, and Juno sent
down a thick mist in front of them to stay them. The other half were
hemmed in by the deep silver-eddying stream, and fell into it with a
great uproar. The waters resounded, and the banks rang again, as they
swam hither and thither with loud cries amid the whirling eddies. As
locusts flying to a river before the blast of a grass fire--the flame
comes on and on till at last it overtakes them and they huddle into the
water--even so was the eddying stream of Xanthus filled with the uproar
of men and horses, all struggling in confusion before Achilles.

Forthwith the hero left his spear upon the bank, leaning it against a
tamarisk bush, and plunged into the river like a god, armed with his
sword only. Fell was his purpose as he hewed the Trojans down on every
side. Their dying groans rose hideous as the sword smote them, and the
river ran red with blood. As when fish fly scared before a huge
dolphin, and fill every nook and corner of some fair haven--for he is
sure to eat all he can catch--even so did the Trojans cower under the
banks of the mighty river, and when Achilles' arms grew weary with
killing them, he drew twelve youths alive out of the water, to
sacrifice in revenge for Patroclus son of Menoetius. He drew them out
like dazed fawns, bound their hands behind them with the girdles of
their own shirts, and gave them over to his men to take back to the
ships. Then he sprang into the river, thirsting for still further blood.

There he found Lycaon, son of Priam seed of Dardanus, as he was
escaping out of the water; he it was whom he had once taken prisoner
when he was in his father's vineyard, having set upon him by night, as
he was cutting young shoots from a wild fig-tree to make the wicker
sides of a chariot. Achilles then caught him to his sorrow unawares,
and sent him by sea to Lemnos, where the son of Jason bought him. But a
guest-friend, Eetion of Imbros, freed him with a great sum, and sent
him to Arisbe, whence he had escaped and returned to his father's
house. He had spent eleven days happily with his friends after he had
come from Lemnos, but on the twelfth heaven again delivered him into
the hands of Achilles, who was to send him to the house of Hades sorely
against his will. He was unarmed when Achilles caught sight of him, and
had neither helmet nor shield; nor yet had he any spear, for he had
thrown all his armour from him on to the bank, and was sweating with
his struggles to get out of the river, so that his strength was now
failing him.

Then Achilles said to himself in his surprise, "What marvel do I see
here? If this man can come back alive after having been sold over into
Lemnos, I shall have the Trojans also whom I have slain rising from the
world below. Could not even the waters of the grey sea imprison him, as
they do many another whether he will or no? This time let him taste my
spear, that I may know for certain whether mother earth who can keep
even a strong man down, will be able to hold him, or whether thence too
he will return."

Thus did he pause and ponder. But Lycaon came up to him dazed and
trying hard to embrace his knees, for he would fain live, not die.
Achilles thrust at him with his spear, meaning to kill him, but Lycaon
ran crouching up to him and caught his knees, whereby the spear passed
over his back, and stuck in the ground, hungering though it was for
blood. With one hand he caught Achilles' knees as he besought him, and
with the other he clutched the spear and would not let it go. Then he
said, "Achilles, have mercy upon me and spare me, for I am your
suppliant. It was in your tents that I first broke bread on the day
when you took me prisoner in the vineyard; after which you sold me away
to Lemnos far from my father and my friends, and I brought you the
price of a hundred oxen. I have paid three times as much to gain my
freedom; it is but twelve days that I have come to Ilius after much
suffering, and now cruel fate has again thrown me into your hands.
Surely father Jove must hate me, that he has given me over to you a
second time. Short of life indeed did my mother Laothoe bear me,
daughter of aged Altes--of Altes who reigns over the warlike Lelegae
and holds steep Pedasus on the river Satnioeis. Priam married his
daughter along with many other women and two sons were born of her,
both of whom you will have slain. Your spear slew noble Polydorus as he
was fighting in the front ranks, and now evil will here befall me, for
I fear that I shall not escape you since heaven has delivered me over
to you. Furthermore I say, and lay my saying to your heart, spare me,
for I am not of the same womb as